


We Carry On

by jadesolo



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: AU, Comfort, F/M, Maveth AU, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 20:36:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5554382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadesolo/pseuds/jadesolo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz and Simmons find themselves trapped on another world-with no obvious way home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Carry On

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: this was written for the talented and exceedingly clever agl03 over on Tumblr for the FSN's Secret Santa exchange! Hope you enjoyed it, dear! And I hope you, the reader, enjoys it too! The prompt was Fitz being taken to Maveth with Jemma during the Season two finale.

A date. Her and Fitz. Going on a _date._

Jemma Simmons’ mind buzzed with all the different possibilities of the date; where he would take her, what they would do, what on earth she would wear ( _she would probably have to steal something of Skye’s_ ), how he would act….

Smiling softly to herself, Jemma stepped towards the containment box where the alien monolith was located. In her hands was a box of equipment, and she was eager to finish up here to find out where Fitz was planning to take them. As she sat down the heavy box, her eyes trailed over to the door of the container and was surprised to find it ajar.

Just as she reached forward to check it, the door to the room opened and Fitz walked back in. “That was a yes, right? To the uh-um…date.” He cleared his throat a little too loudly, and it made Jemma grin.

“It was,” she confirmed. His sparkling blue eyes met her’s for a moment that lasted a little longer than it should have. She tore her gaze away from him and gestured to the container. “Did the lock break when you messed with it?”

“No, why?” Fitz stepped toward the containment box and picked up the lock. “That’s odd.”

“What is?”

“The containment box is brand new, but the lock isn’t. Look at it,” he pointed to a very small spec on the padlock. Jemma leaned forward to get a better look at it. She frowned deeply.

“Rust,” Jemma breathed. She looked up at Fitz. “That’s rust. Who put this lock on?”

“I think it was Agent W- _Jemma!_ ” Fitz shouted as he reached forward to push her out of the way, just as the monolith inside liquefied, throwing itself against the already ajar door. The force of the impact made the door swing open and the liquid launched itself through the air, almost as if it were alive. “Go!” Fitz shouted, moving forward, griping as tightly to Jemma’s hand as if she were a life boat in the middle of the sea. 

Suddenly he was yanked backwards and he glanced back to find that the liquid had impossibly gotten a hold of the biochemist. “ _Jemma_!” He cried, trying to pull her away from harm. But it was useless–suddenly her hand slid from his. “ _JEMMA_!” He screamed, just as she disappeared into the liquid. “ _NO_!”

All sense of logic gone, Fitz threw himself forward, toward the black goo, crying out for his friend. The liquid swarmed around him, engulfing him, and then he was falling.

* * * *

Jemma closed her eyes, the sensation of falling making her feel sick. She’d been terrified of heights since she had jumped out of the plane to save the team, and now here she was. Falling to her death. It was a bitter irony. And worse yet, both times the last thing she had witnessed was the worst thing imaginable: Fitz screaming in agony. Her heart plummeted somewhere down to her stomach, Jemma opened her eyes, refusing to let that be the last thing to go through her head as she died. She would not think of Fitz in anyway that wasn’t positive.

Electricity swirled all around her, like she was in the middle of a storm cloud. The wind was so loud that she wasn’t even sure if she was screaming. Then suddenly everything went bright. Now she could hear herself screaming, and suddenly gravity kicked in. She arched through the air and landed hard on the cold, sandy ground. It took her a moment to get her senses back, still incredibly dazed from the fall–

_Sand?_

Jemma’s eyes snapped open and she cried out again. She was in a foreign landscape; it was certainly the desert at night. A few meters ahead was a portal. “ _Fitz_ ,” Jemma whispered. She scrambled toward the portal, just as a figure shot through, and arced through the air, much like she had mere seconds ago. The figure hit the ground rolling, and after a few meters, stopped moving altogether.

Completely ignoring the closing portal, Jemma cried out and ran towards the limp body. “Fitz!” She collapsed to the ground beside him, rolling him onto his back. “ _Fitz_!” she cried.

 Slowly, his eyes began to flutter and then opened altogether. It took a moment or two until they properly focused on her, though. “Jemma?” He sat up, throwing his arms around her in a tight hug.

She awkwardly hugged him back, letting out a sigh of relief. He was okay. He was alive. Tears blurring her vision, she pulled away. “Are you hurt?” She began to fuss at him, checking for injuries. After a few moments of not doing anything, Fitz reached out and grabbed her hand. He put it against his chest, right above his heart. “I’m fine, Jemma. Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Jemma replied, taking a deep breath. Some of the fear from the previous moment had passed, and she suddenly became aware of the fact that her palm was still against Fitz’s chest. She cleared her throat and quickly removed her hand from it’s position and stood up. “Oh no.” She whispered as she became aware of the surroundings.

Beside her, Fitz swore loudly. The cleanest version that Jemma could think of was “we’re screwed”.

 _ **Three days later**_ ,

They had been on the bloody planet for three days. And so far, there was no sun. Fitz attempted to keep a brave face, and tried his best to comfort Jemma whenever he saw her resolve crumbling, and he wondered how long it would take for either of them to break if the team didn’t come get them soon. The thought was almost unbearable to think. Never seeing his mum again, or the team….

Fitz took a deep breath, rapidly blinking away tears. He had to stay strong for Jemma. He couldn’t allow him to cry, for something so selfish. His main concern needed to be Jemma and her well-being, not what-ifs. They had done their best, using their phones to make recordings of the gravity levels and the landscape of the planet. The most worrying thing was the lack of water all around. Even if the team found a way to save them, there was no guarantee they would still be alive.

Fitz almost laughed at the bitter irony. He’d almost died once due to being dumped in the middle of the ocean. Now he might die thanks to having _no_ water.

“Fitz?”

Jemma’s voice brought him out of his reverie, and he turned to her. “Yeah?”

“I think we may have a problem.”

He stumbled over toward her, silently cursing the uneven ground. “What’s wrong?”

Jemma pointed up at the sky above them. Fitz followed her gaze and found that she was pointing at the stars above. “What about it?”

“Fitz, we’re not just on a different planet. Here, look at the planet over on the horizon.”

“I try not to,” Fitz said bitterly, but did as he was told. Mentally, he reviewed all of the planets that they knew of in the Milky Way. But none of the planets matched the description of the planet that was constantly visible in the sky. “Wait…does that mean-?”

“We’re in a different galaxy,” Jemma confirmed. “We’ve officially traveled farther than any other human being has in history!”

“Well, one could argue Tony Stark would be the first in the Battle of New York-”

“Hardly, the Chitauri force was above Earth.”

“Technically it was a worm-hole so we really don’t know-”

“Oh, Fitz!” Jemma groaned. “Either way, we’re still in an entire different galaxy.”

“Well if you want to look on the bright side, now we know what the monolith was used for.” Fitz said with a shrug, with a dark smile on his face.

“Teleportation. You don’t honestly think the Kree used it as a way to…” Jemma trailed off. “Fitz, Lincoln said that the Kree used the monolith as a way to destroy Inhumans.”

“Which means if Skye comes into contact with it-”

“No, Fitz. What if they sent Inhumans _here_. To this planet, as a death sentence.”

“Maveth,” Fitz said suddenly.

“What?” Jemma repeated, frowning. Her eyebrows scrunched together.

“Maveth, it’s Hebrew-”

“Yeah, I know. It’s Hebrew for death.”

“Sounds like a good name for a planet that’s suppose to bring death to the Inhumans,” Fitz replied. “Bit on the nose, but the Kree weren’t exactly the joking kind.”

Jemma suppressed a shudder. “Still, a planet can’t bring death to anything. It’s impossible.”

“Jemma, our best friend just ended up being half-alien and gained superpowers to control vibrations. Our bar for impossible is pretty damn high.”

“Even so, the story is a _myth_! A legend for Inhuman mothers to tell their super-powered children at night.” Jemma retorted, folding her arms.

“Either way,” Fitz said calmly, “we can’t stay in this spot forever. We need food and water. We’re not going to find it here.”

“I don’t suppose you have a satsuma in your jacket pocket do you?”

“No satsumas here. But I do have my lanyard with me,” Fitz replied, pulling it from his pocket to show her. Jemma rolled her eyes.

“I’m not sure what good that lanyard will do out here.”

“You never know, I could pull a uh…what’s that show Skye likes to watch? The one with the guy and duct-tape?”

“MacGyver?”

“Yeah, that one. I could use it to make something useful, you know, with my bare hands.” Fitz said proudly, waving them at her. She tried to hold back a scoff.

“Okay, you could do that, or you could leave it here to let the team know we were here when they come to rescue us.”

“You’re suggesting we leave?”

“You said it yourself, Fitz,” Jemma said, turning away from him and eyeing the horizon. “We won’t last long without water.”

_**A Week Later,** _

Jemma pressed the record button on the screen of her phone. “It’s been ten days since we ended up on this forsaken planet. Fitz has come to call it Maveth, the Hebrew word for ‘death’ due to the monolith’s nature toward the Inhumans.” She took a deep breath. “We abandoned our place in which we first arrived to look for food and water. At first the search didn’t go well, but it’s thanks to a sand-storm that we found a small pond.” She let out a sigh of relief. “We’re feeling a lot more alert now that we’re hydrated, but we still haven’t found any vegetation on this world yet. There’s only one source of food on this planet, and it’s some sort of alien plant that resides in the pond, as me and Fitz found out upon our attempts to take a swim.”

“Rather unfortunately, it believes we’re food as well.”

Jemma stopped the recording and stood up. “We’ve got no choice, Fitz.”

Fitz, who was sitting on a nearby rock looking at the screen of his own phone, stood up as well, his expression absolute. “There’s no way in hell you’re going in that pond, Jemma.”

“Do you think I want to? After what happened earlier? But we need food, Fitz. And I’m a better swimmer anyway.”

“I’m well aware of that fact, thank you. As if I didn’t know that about my best friend of ten years.”

“You’re not going to stop me, Fitz. I’m stronger than you think.” She took a step forward, but Fitz reached out and grabbed her hand. Irritated, Jemma turned back to face him.

“I have never once questioned your strength in the entire time I’ve known you, Jemma. Just…be safe, okay?” All the words that could of been said lingered in those two words, but Jemma took them, understanding that this was all he could say in that moment. She nodded and turned around before stepping into the pond. “You want me? It’s dinner time! Come and get me–” She let out a small shriek as something pulled her under. In her preferential vision she saw Fitz taking an immediate step forward, screaming something out.

It was dark underneath the surface, near pitch black, but she could still make out the almost worm-like appearance of the plant. Getting a better grip on her weapon of choice-a small wooden stake she had spent several hours sharpening-she drove it forward, toward the base of the plant’s body. The thing writhed in pain and Jemma pushed the stake through harder and twisted the handle.

A few seconds later, the plant had been torn into two, through several stab wounds. Carefully grabbing her prize, she swam back up to the surface. As soon as she broke through, there was a huge sigh of relief from her left, followed by a cry. “Jemma!”

She pulled herself up onto the cool, sandy ground and took some much needed breaths of air while Fitz pulled off his cardigan and wrapped it around her. “Are you okay? Jemma?”

She didn’t reply, instead she turned to the half of the plant she had brought with her. “You’re dinner, biatch!” She screamed at it, letting out a small laugh of pride. Fitz stared at her, eyebrows raised in shock and amusement. She turned to him. “What?”

“Nothing,” Fitz said in reply, shaking his head. “Nothing at all. I don’t suppose you know how to start a fire as well?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

_**Three Weeks Later,** _

“We’ve been trapped on the planet for over a month now,” Fitz said into the phone. He glanced over at Jemma’s sleeping form beside him. The fire had already gone out, and the only light was the bright blue hue the moon and planet let out. “The chance of rescue is growing slimmer every day. I’m trying to remain hopeful for Jemma’s sake and-to be perfectly honest-my own.”

He looked up at the stars above. “I never wanted to leave Earth, you know. When I was a kid, I never wanted to be an astronaut. Can you imagine that? A kid not wanting to be an astronaut? But I was more curious about life here on earth. How we came to be, the things we could create with our own hands. My mum used to say that I was like Hephaestus. I don’t know why she always told me that, but she did. I think it was the one of the ways that she found that she could encourage me on my work. She’s a clever woman, but she doesn’t really understand engineering.”

“I’ve never really told anyone this, but…I was glad when I met Simmons at the Academy. She was an outsider like me. Never been to America before, a child prodigy. I was too scared to talk to her though. Couldn’t come up with nothing clever enough to say to her. She was always so smart, even if she was a bit of an odd duck. She was always friendly to people. Compared to me, I was a miserable human being. Called everyone idiots. I don’t know how my mum put up with me.” Fitz let out a small laugh. “I’m not even sure how Jemma puts up with me.”

He went quiet a moment. “When we first met, I…I was amazed. By her kindness and her strength. Her logic and her hope. Her beauty and her intellect. But never once did I ever think about–I mean….” he trailed off. “But then she contracted that bloody alien virus…and then Hydra. Then–then Ward, the bloody….” Fitz took a deep breath, trying to control his anger. “And now this…it’s like the bloody cosmos want to keep us apart.” Fitz cringed. How melodramatic was _that_?

“That was a wee bit dramatic though, wasn’t it? Okay, Skye I need you to do me a favor if you somehow manage to get a hold of this phone….call my mum. Tell her that I uh…oh hell, I don’t know. Just… tell her I love her, more than the world. And tell her I’m sorry for being such a rubbish son and being such a pain.” Fitz sighed, rubbing his eyes. “And Skye? Whatever you may think, because I know you, this isn’t somehow your fault. It’s no one’s fault. And just stay safe, will ya?”

He hesitated a moment, then continued. “And tell Lance to get off his arse and get back together with Bobbi. So that’s it, I guess. And, just on the safe side, DVR this series of _Doctor Who_ , please. I need to know why Twelve has a guitar.”

_**Two weeks later,** _

“It’s been six weeks since we were teleported. We’ve found a cave underground. It looks like someone was living here at some point, but I’m not sure where they’ve gone. If they’re even still alive. And there’s something outside. Some sort of creature.” Jemma sighed heavily. “It almost looks like a Dementor. I’m not sure that I like that parallel. Dementors use to terrify me.”

“There’s some equipment here. Me and Fitz have a plan. We’re going to use the combined batteries in our phones, _thank you Fitz for making the batteries last longer_ , to fire up the equipment and determine when the next portal will open. Because it has to have some sort of schedule. If my calculations and the stars are right, anyway. But my maths are normally right. If we can’t go through the portal, we’re going to send the sim cards through the portal in a very helpful glass bottle we found on a…on _a graveyard_ , so to speak. With any luck, the bottle will go through and it will end up back on earth, and you can find a way to save us.”

Jemma hesitated a moment. “This is all I ever dreamed of as a kid. I had scoliosis when I was little and my Dad whenever he could…he would take me out onto the roof so I could watch the stars. He would name all the constellations for me and my mum would come out and bring us hot cocoa. Since then, I’ve been determined to find out what was out there. Out here. I always wanted to visit another planet. I use to fall asleep every night trying to pick the perfect one, or imagining one of my own. But now, I just….I want to go home. I want to see the sun again. I want a cuppa. And I’ve never wanted kale more in my entire life.” Jemma laughed. “And I miss all of you. Bobbi, Skye, May, Hunter, Mack, Coulson. I can’t wait to see you all again. I hope I see you all again. And…if things don’t work out, Coulson? Please…remember to tell my Dad first.”

She turned off the recorder and glanced over toward Fitz, who was standing in the corner working on calculations. “Fitz,” she said, standing up. “I think we need to talk.”

“About what?” Fitz replied, not looking over at her. She hesitated a moment, unsure of how to continue. There were so many things that needed to be said, but things that she couldn’t bring herself to say.

“What I said before you left.”

Fitz’s hands, which were hovering over the paper with a pencil he had found in his jacket, froze and he looked up at her. “Now?”

Jemma nodded. “Better time than any?”

“Jemma, the portal could open at anytime. We have to nail down an exact time and place in order to send this through.” He picked up the bottle and waved it in the air for effect before sitting it back down.

“I know, Fitz. But I just….do we have a shot at being together?” Jemma asked. “I mean, every time we try we–something happens.”

“Yeah, something does happen. But Jemma, this time the universe didn’t rip us apart. It kept us together. And we’ll keep fighting, okay? We’ll make it to that dinner, I promise you, Jemma. No matter how long it takes. We’ll get there.”

Jemma nodded, then reached forward and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace. He froze, surprised by the unexpected hug, but wrapped his arms around her and returned the favor. After a moment or two, Jemma pulled away and motioned toward the calculations in front of them. “Let’s get to work.”

_**Two weeks later,** _

“Simmons and I have determined the exact location of the opening of the next portal. It will open tomorrow afternoon at about three o’ clock. With any luck, we’ll get the sim cards sent through and within the next few weeks, we’ll be back home.”

Fitz turned off the recorder and turned to Jemma. “Are you ready?”

“More than I’ll ever be,” Jemma said, shouldering the backpack they had found and filled with supplies. “We need to get a move on if we’re going to make it there in the morning.”

“Jemma, just in case–”

“Don’t, Fitz. I don’t want to hear that on this world. Just….wait until we’re home. Please?”

He paused for a moment, then gave her the warmest smile he could muster and took her hand. “Yes ma'am.”

_**One day later,** _

“We’re almost there,” Jemma called, struggling to climb up the hill. Fitz was right behind her, trudging along and cursing the whole way.

“Great,” Fitz muttered as they reached the top of the hill. The sight that awaited them took Fitz’s breath away. Below them was an incredibly deep slope that Fitz was certain if they fell down, they’d break their necks.

Jemma craned her neck left and right for a sight of the portal, eyes trailing up and down the canyon, desperate for a sight of the portal. Finally she cried out. “Fitz, look!” she pointed down at the very bottom of the slope, where a portal had just come to life. “It’s close enough for us to jump!”

“Jemma-wait!” He grabbed her arm. “Do we really want to do that?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he wasn’t sure why he said them. They should be jumping, they should be on their way back home. They _needed_ to do that. So why wasn’t he doing that? Why was he fighting against her? But he couldn’t stop himself. “It’s too much of a risk, all of the viruses we could be carrying.”

Jemma’s resolve crumbled at that and it made him sick that he was the cause of it. _Why the hell was he saying these things?_ Then her eyes went wide with terror. “ _Fitz!_ ”

He turned around and nearly fell backwards in fear. Heading straight towards them was the largest sand-storm he’d ever seen on the planet before, and in the center of it was the dark figure that often hunted them on their treks above ground. She grabbed his hand. “Fitz, we need to jump now. It’s the only way!”

“I-I can’t.” Fitz breathed, heart racing in his chest. It was like all of his own self-control was gone. Suddenly he was reminded of Mack’s experience of being controlled by the alien entity down in the alien city. “I have to _stay_?” The final word came out as a question, his own self confused by his actions.

“ _No_!” Jemma cried. She looked between Fitz and the creature behind them. “Fitz, what are you saying? You’re not staying, you’re coming with me!”

“I can’t!”

“You _can_!” Jemma shot back. Suddenly her eyes widened. “You can’t control your actions, can you?”

Somehow he managed to shake his head. 

“It’s controlling you, Fitz. Warping your mind somehow, like Loki’s staff with Agent Barton.”

 _Well hit me then!_  he thought bitterly.

“Just come with me, Fitz. Please.”

“I can’t move, I don’t want to.”

“Fitz, it’s coming closer. If it catches us, it will kill us.” Jemma said quietly, “Fitz, please just do something!”

“I CAN’T!” Fitz screamed.

“ _DO SOMETHING!_ ” Jemma begged. She glanced over his shoulder and nearly let out a sob. “I can’t lose you!”

“You’re not going to die for me, now go. Before it controls you too.”

“That’s not going to happen, I’m not going to leave you. Ever.”

“Jemma–”

“I’m never going to leave you again, Fitz!” Jemma shouted back. She wrapped her arms around his torso. “I’m sorry I have to do this.” Holding onto Fitz for dear life, she let herself fall backwards. Her grip on Fitz was unrelenting, and she manages to drag him off the edge too. They fell, and Fitz struggled the whole time. Tears made their way down Jemma’s cheeks as they fell and then everything went dark.

_**Two days later,** _

All he remembered was flashes. The inability to move, the sudden desire to stay on the planet, despite the fact that home was just inches away. Jemma pulling him off the cliff with her, _falling_. Falling through the portal, then nothing but darkness. Then slowly, more glimpses of memory reappeared in his mind’s eye: being dragged away on a stretcher, familiar voices filled with relief. The soft beeping of a machine. Crying.

Finally, Fitz was able to open his eyes. When he did, he immediately regretted it. Everything was too bright. Why was everything so bright?

“Sorry, eternal night, got it.” The light went off. Fitz blinked a few times and found a familiar face looking over him. “Skye? Oh thank god.”

At the sound of her name, she made a weird expression, almost like she wanted to say something but decided against it. “How are you?” She asked, sitting down on the bed beside him. She cringed. “God, that’s such a stupid question.”

“No, I’m uh…” Fitz paused, once again remembering the terrible feeling of losing all control in those final moments on Maveth. “I’ll be fine. Where’s Simmons?”

“She’s awake. We put you in separate rooms to make sure you didn’t have any viruses. Wouldn’t want to make the other sick and all that.” Skye paused. “Are you sure you’re okay, though? Simmons told me everything that happened-”

“I’ll be fine,” Fitz assured her. “Just….we have to destroy that monolith, okay? For once and for all.”

“Yeah, absolutely.” Skye promised. “We will.”

_**Three days later** _ **_,_ **

After five days in quarantine and being tested on for every single virus known to man-and few unknown-Jemma Simmons was getting cabin fever. Actually, it was more of an anticipation of being able to get to Fitz and check on him. Bobbi, who had taken up residence as acting biochemist, refused to let either of them out of quarantine until they had gotten use to the gravity and simple brightness of Earth again.

And, despite Jemma’s grumblings, it worked well enough. She had gotten use to the freedom of Earth’s gravity once more and the bright rooms didn’t hurt her eyes quite as bad. It was a definite improvement, but she had a long way to go.

On her first day of freedom, of real proper freedom, no alien planet to deal with, not being stuck in quarantine and answering everyone’s questions, Jemma got up especially early. She was always up at five forty in the morning, but this morning she made sure to get up an hour earlier. Careful to not wake anyone on her way down the long hallways of the Playground, she made her way up the stairs to the second level of the base, the one that was mostly just storage. Most of the items were caked in dust due to having never been sought out again.

She made her way towards one of the best windows, only to find that she wasn’t the only one who had had the idea. Already standing in front of the window, leaning against the wall for support, was Fitz.

“You wanted to see it too, eh?” Simmons asked. Fitz jumped and turned to Simmons. Once he saw it was her, relief flashed across his handsome features.

“Yeah,” he said after a moment. “It’s been so long I don’t think I even remember what our sun looks like.”

“It’s big, round and bright,” Jemma said, stepping up beside him. “And I wouldn’t stare at it too hard. It’ll probably be twice as bright due to our-”

“Sensitivity to light. I know. I just…I needed to see it. Needed proof.”

“That we’re really home?”

“Yeah,” Fitz nodded, turning to her with such a sadness in his eyes that it broke her heart. “Every night on that bloody planet, I dreamed about us being here. On the base, in the lab. Now that it’s really happened, I just can’t…believe it.”

“Neither can I,” Jemma agreed. “But we’re here. "And we’re alive. That’s what matters.”

“We were incredibly lucky, though.” Fitz retorted. “That portal could’ve closed before we reached it, especially due to-” he tapped his head. “This.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Jemma said. “Whatever that thing was, Fitz, it was a lot stronger than either of us.” She turned and looked back at the window. They both remained silent for a long moment, but it wasn’t an awkward one. It was one filled with anticipation, waiting for the other to say something.

Finally, Fitz broke the silence. “How did you know the portal was still open?”

“What?”

“There’s no way you could’ve known the portal was still open. You were arguing with me the whole time and focusing on the storm,” Fitz said, turning to Jemma. “You never looked to see if the portal was still open before you jumped.”

“I did the maths,” Jemma replied without looking at him. “A portal that big, the position of the stars….the planet’s rotation. It gave us a minute to two minutes max.”

“Jemma, I did the math too. The velocity would have meant that the fall would’ve lasted at least sixty seconds-”

Jemma remained quiet.

“You knew, didn’t you?” Fitz said, breathless. “You knew it was a one in one-thousandth chance.”

“Yes,” Jemma confirmed, turning to him. “But I couldn’t leave you there. And we certainly couldn’t stay if that thing was controlling you somehow.”

“Jemma, I’m not mad.” Fitz replied. “I’m just…that was incredibly brave of you. Slightly on the reckless side, but brave.”

“I could’ve killed you.” Jemma said quietly. She looked down at her hands, disbelieving that she had done such a thing.

“I’m still alive. You’re still alive.” Fitz said, turning to her. She forced herself to look at him, but the weight of the guilt made her shoulders sag somewhat. He pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “You saved us, Jemma. You’re the hero.”

She met his gaze and nodded, just as an orange light began to filter in from the window. They kept eye-contact for a moment before tearing their gaze away from each other and back to the sun. “What do we do now?” Jemma asked as the sun appeared from behind some of the fellow buildings around the base.

“We carry on.”

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this ingenious little idea of a prompt, and I hope I did it justice enough! Feel free to comment!


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